kamiel [at] creativechoice.org

The bus is not allowed to cross the border. We have already crossed though and begin to miss our luggage that we have left in the vehicle. After two hours, passengers get impatient and some attempt to walk back. I suspect the bus driver to have betrayed us and to be selling the contents of our backpacks to dodgy dealers by now. I inhale and exhale until I can’t stand it and my neurotic self takes over. I march back into Laos, leaving my passport with some friendly border guards. I quickly find the bus which is occupied by several passengers with their feet up and cigarettes fuming. My look grimly skims their faces as I wade to the back of the bus to get our belongings. Everything is there. I start walking back. With two and a half backpacks my payload looks pretty serious and I am saluted accordingly by the oncoming banana merchants. Freed from the bus, we start looking for alternative transportation and we find a family that is kind enough to make some money off of us by transporting us to Hue along with their household.

Hue, once the capital of Vietnam, tourist town where they are preparing a wonderful show, we have arrived at the right time. We find accomodation in the google hotel, a sterile guesthouse with friendly staff. We walk to the train station and buy our tickets to Nha trang, then have two glasses of sugar cane juice each before we go back to sleep.